If it seems like just yesterday the national media was swooning over Saint Paul’s city council – the first all-female city council in the US, we were told – it’s because it practically was just yesterday that the entire establishment was swooning over them.  

They’re women, donchaknow.  

And I’m not gonna say I predicted this, but you know I kinda predicted this:

BUBBLE DAYS ARE OVER: St. Paul City Council lost its president this year, triggered a defamation lawsuit and workplace conduct investigation, and could not choose a 7th member, leaving tie-breaking votes to a mayoral appointee. Attendance issues are real: https://t.co/IA9yiFH0jy

— Frederick Melo, Reporter/Axolotl (@FrederickMelo) April 6, 2025

The president was, as luck would have it, my “representative”, Mitra Jalali – a woman whose “flexibility” on issues and identity makes Tim Walz look all boring and consistent; she left the council in January to focus on her health or something. 

Since then, the council has deadlocked on everything from a temporary replacement for Jalali, to space for the city’s new Sudanese-style trash collection service to stage its trucks (forcing Mayor Carter to declare an emergency and, speaking of emergemcies, forcing Mayor Carter to appear like a relative moderate and grownup.

Or perhaps the one person in the transaction who shows up for work: the councilwomens’ attendance is a little dismal:

Attendance records for 43 St. Paul City Council meetings last year reveal Mitra Jalali showed for every one, but only her. Others missed up to 16% of 43 meetings. All 7 members were in attendance together just 19 times. Exclude Yang's maternity leave, that's 61% of the time. pic.twitter.com/66OgrAQnfy

— Frederick Melo, Reporter/Axolotl (@FrederickMelo) April 4, 2025

That’s may actually be worse than the DFL in the House of Representatives. 

UPDATE: Mayor Carter has appointed Jalali’s legislative aide to serve out the term.  I don’t think this is over. 

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Tuesday, April 8th, 2025 at 3:25 am and is filed under MNDFL, St. Paul. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.